Second Annual DC Flag Day Celebration, Thursday June 14th – The Rally and Party sponsored by DC Vote, LLF and L.U.V DC will start in Dupont Circle and end at Eighteenth Street Lounge – More Details HERE

PANEL DISCUSSION – Web Streaming and Tech Development for a Local Music Community

In order to develop a thriving cultural community, artists musicians and fans must explore and adopt new technologies and platforms that enhance promotion and distribution of the arts. Join us on Thursday May 17th to hear from DC developing media and technology platforms who are striving to better the local cultural community.

Two months ago, Neal Humphrey, avid fiddle player and project manager at an energy efficiency nonprofit, was itching to connect with other musicians. For over a year, Neal had been part of a bluegrass band (The Family Hammer), but when two band members moved out of the city, he was left band-less and anxious to start something new. He added, “After four years in DC, I knew about twenty-five decent musicians that I could call up to jam with, but most were of the folk or bluegrass genre. I wanted to experiment with some new styles, and find people that I really connected with musically.”

Good ideas move quickly. Within a few weeks, a cohort of musicians, eager to experiment with new sounds and new people, had devised a plan. Brannon Walsh, EPA environmental scientist and guitar/harmonica player, offered to host the event. Another person offered to provide professional recordings of the performances. With a location set, the recruitment process began. Neal described his community-based outreach strategy – “I told all the musicians I knew to tell at least three other musicians. Pretty soon we had forty people signed up.”

At the end of February, a swath of DC musicians with an array of musical backgrounds came together for a meet-n-greet that strayed far from the normal business card schmoozing. After six hours of high-energy trial and error, nine bands had formed with one month to prepare, practice, and perform a fifteen-minute set of their choosing, including at least one original song written since the bands’ inception. This past Saturday, April 14, marked the culmination of Neal’s labor – over 30 musicians who were previously strangers churned out a one-time, four hour performance as “flash bands”. If you didn’t hear about this event, there’s a reason. No facebook invites, no emails. Strictly word –of-mouth hype for a night of genuine musical talent and genre exploration. Over one hundred people came out for a fusion-filled night of everything from dubstep hip hop to indie bluegrass to punk(ish) rock.

In DC, we see the rise of the hobbyist. Many local jobs don’t have the cut-throat, 16 hour work days of faster moving cities like New York or Chicago, allowing time to cultivate and pursue interests. In many ways, DC has a uniquely creative environment where people aren’t necessarily interested in having their hobby become their career. Since people aren’t trying to “make it” in the music industry, it fosters an authentically collaborative atmosphere, especially evident in the “Flash Band” performance this past weekend. Admittedly, this crammed house concert, with backdrops of Diego Rivera-like murals and LED certified Christmas lights, at times felt like a college party revival (and will undoubtedly be snubbed by some as a byproduct of pervasive gentrification of Columbia Heights). But, the energy, attitude and talent are a reminder that DC can be both a straight-laced policy grate and a creative hub.

The next Flash Band event will start at 5 PM on Saturday, July 14 at the Half Street Fairgrounds beside Nationals Stadium. Check out the newly updated flashbandproject.org for up-to-date information about future events and recordings of Flash Band performances!

If you’re interested in participating in the next Flash Band event, or are otherwise interested in creative ways to grow the local DC music scene, please contact Neal Humphrey at humphrey.neal@gmail.com.

During Lumen8 Anacostia, using a combination of projection, art installation and live music performance, Gallery O on H will recreate their gallery and courtyard in a historic Anacostia building. Located at 2021 Martin Luther King Blvd., the event will take place from 4 to 9 p.m. and will showcase outsider artist, Brian Dowdell and a live local music showcase by Listen Local First.

Gallery O on H, located at 1354 H Street NE is an indoor/outdoor community space where art, music and minds intersect for cultural experience. The pop-up gallery, much like the H Street space, will combined art and music allowing sound to flow into the street using speakers to project out the windows of the second floor space.

The space will be recreated through a mix of live art, live music and projected video scenes of the original space, featuring hyper-local H Street celebrities. The experience is open to the public.

“Recreating the outside in is an exercise in fusing sensory realities, and I find that fascinating. This piece of video projection art captures the burgeoning and exciting Gallery O on H space – and its lively community on H street – within the walls of Anacostia,” explains Isabelle Carbonell, videographer.

Live musical performances include local artists Rene Moffatt, Justin Trawick, The Sweater Set and Jess Dye of Lightfoot.

Gallery owners and community advocates, Steve Hessler and Mary Ellen Vehlow are using this experience to launch a series of events that they hope will build community on H Street. After holding onto this property and surrounding structures for years, the couple has begun execution for a mix-use plan including temporary and permanent concepts that foster creative entrepreneurs. The full concept, set to roll out in stages over the next two years, will begin with a more active use of the current gallery and outdoor venue space for ticketed events including art, music and community featuring a pop-up markets for food and retail.

“We see this as an opportunity to infuse local community with an energy beyond the bars and the night life of H Street,” explains Vehlow.

The space will host their first event, Blossom Bake+Brew, on April 21 in collaboration with ScoutMob, Chocolate City Beer and Think Local First to benefit H Street Main Street. Jazz in the Hood, a component of the DC Jazz Festival, is set for June 2 and 9th. A summer music series, Music in the Courtyard, hosted twice a month begins in July. A full listing of events can be found online at www.galleryoonh.com.

For more information about the pop-up space in Anacostia, Gallery O on H or their events please contact Stacey Price atstaceydeniseprice@gmail.com.

About Isabelle Carbonell

Isabelle Carbonell is a documentary photographer and documentary filmmaker who documents political, social, whimsical, ethnographic, and environmental stories around the world. When filming, she becomes her environment — sleeping, eating, and breathing with those she is focusing on, absorbing their culture, transcending the divide between observer and subject.

Isabelle also taught documentary filmmaking to a class of software designers and engineers at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, and more recently did a two-week photography workshop for National Geographic.

Unique in her perspectives and methods, she also comes from a wide cultural background as half-Belgian and half-Uruguayan. Based out of Washington D.C. and Brussels, Belgium, she graduated from the Residential College at the University of Michigan with degrees in Environmental and Social Science, Photography and Filmmaking. Her documentary skills have taken her to countries such as India, Qatar, Cuba, Mexico, Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, Nepal, Kazakhstan, and Nicaragua.

Listen Local First, an program of Think Local First DC is a local music initiative devoted to building awareness and creating opportunities for local musicians and venues in order to raise the profile of DC’s local music scene. This campaign includes a monthly Local Music Day and Local Music Showcases highlighting a variety of venues and genres of local music. www.listenlocalfirstdc.com

About Brian Dowall

Like many of the self-taught artists, Brian is prolific & compulsive, he intuitively taps into a space that spontaneously spills out onto that which is his favorite canvas “cardboard” or scripts sand spirits deftly.

Brian Dowdall is an original self taught creative force; prolific in paint, colors drawn from nature’s elements: fire, water, wind & earth …he calls up the spirits of animals & goddesses from his inner being. The work is joyful, unconscious & sometimes strange. Brian is a 35 year VISIONARY & “outsider” internationally exhibited.

The Metro Music Source & DC Setlist will be hosting a SXSW debrief panel discussion next Thursday, March 29th at The Dunes as part of their monthly music industry meet-up event. Fresh from their return from Austin, Texas, the Listen Local First team, Ryan Holladay from BLUEBRAIN, and promoter Sasha Lord will be sharing their experiences about SXSW 2012. The evening will feature a performance from Gypsy jazz vocalist and Strathmore Artist In Residence, Mary Alouette.

Listen Local First DC (LLF) is a local music initiative devoted to building awareness and creating opportunities for local musicians and venues in order to raise the profile of DC’s local music scene. At the beginning of the year, LLF launched a campaign to get a mobile music venue to SXSW with the aim of showcasing the talent and diversity of the DC area music scene to a wider audience. With money raised from a Kickstarter campaign, Listen Local First (LLF) purchased a van, decked it out with sound equipment, and took to the road. They successfully showcased 15 DC bands/ musicians and hosted upwards of 25 different mobile music venue performances over the course of 3 days. The process, adventure and music were documented via their blog, and soon-to-be-released web series.

Ryan Holladay is one half of the innovative music duo, BLUEBRAIN. They’ve been featured in everything from WIRED Magazine to the New York Times for their work, which blurs the line between art and technology. Their “location-aware album” for The National Mall is the first ever iPhone app to be included in the Washington Post’s Top 10 Albums of the Year awards. Ryan also serves as the new media curator at Artisphere.

Sasha Lord is the booker and promoter for Comet Ping Pong in DC. She co-produced the “DC Does SXSW” event which showcased a diversity of DC artists including Hume, Deleted Scenes, Edie Sedgwick and DJ Baby Alcatraz. In addition Sasha has partnered, promoted or booked with Civilian Art Projects, The Pink Line Project, U Street Music Hall, The Fridge, Gold Leaf Studios/443 Eye St, Albus Cavus, The Hirshhorns Art Lab program & Tranformer.

The evening will end with music from Gypsy jazz vocalist and Strathmore Artist In Residence Mary Alouette. Alouette describes her sound as “Gypsy jazz, post dubstep, beautiful music and dangerous rhythms”. Her core inspiration is the gypsy legend virtuoso guitarist Django Reinhardt, but her musical influences also range from the great Billie Holiday, Nina Simone and Edith Piaf through to progressive contemporaries like Grimes, St. Vincent, and Modeselektor. Mary will be previewing tracks from her debut EP Midas, ahead of her CD Release Show on April 25th at the Mansion at Strathmore.

The Metro Music Source (MMS) is proud to have Ryan Holladay, LLF founders Christopher Naoum and René Moffatt, Sasha Lord and Mary Alouette at their March Meet- Up. MMS is an informal monthly music industry meet-up event with the goal of bringing focus to the vibrant DC music scene, encouraging support, collaboration, and knowledge sharing amongst music creators and industry professionals. Past MMS events have brought together local musicians, record label reps, artist managers, publicists, filmmakers, music publishers, producer/engineers, and many others. This month’s event is co-hosted with DC Setlist, a popular music platform which recommends, discovers and discusses all things music in the DC area and beyond.